


The Space Between

by Ravenhoot



Category: The Aurora Cycle - Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Genre: Could Be Canon, F/M, Mating Bond, Missing Scene, POV Multiple, Prologue, Soulmates, be'shmai, sexy space elf, squad 312
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:14:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 18,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23028388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ravenhoot/pseuds/Ravenhoot
Summary: As the Longbow sails through space toward their next destination, the members of Squad 312 wonder what their next move will be. For the moment, the only next move Auri wants to make is one that involves a shower and a much-needed nap.Typical squad banter, Kal gets jealous of Ty and Aurora ends up crashing in someone else's cabin instead of her own.EDIT: I decided to keep this going past where I originally meant to end it. Auri and the squad watch Auri's favorite movie... and Kal gets to finally meet Legolas.**I began writing this fic before Aurora Burning was published, so for continuity's sake, I'm going to keep the events of this story in between what occurs at the end of book 1 and the start of book 2**
Relationships: Catherine "Cat" Brannock/Tyler Jones, Kaliis Gilwraeth/Aurora Jie-Lin O'Malley, Scarlett Jones/Finian de Karran de Seel
Comments: 33
Kudos: 83





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is meant to take place right after the end of _Aurora Rising._

The Longbow sailed through an ocean of starlight. Their destination set but no plan for what to do when they arrived. The main cabin was mostly still and silent but when Aurora shivered for the third time in under five minutes, Scarlett’s brow creased in concern. 

“Are you cold, Auri?”

“No,” Aurora replied. “I just have lingering heebie-jeebies from Octavia.” She shifted in her seat, closer to Kal.

Scarlett wondered about those two. In truth, she wasn’t sure if it was even a deliberate motion, but nevertheless, she noticed. 

“What are heebie-jeebies?” Zila wondered, flicking the safety on her disruptor rifle on and off.

“Is it contagious?” Finian smirked, desperately trying to lighten the tense silence that had settled over the cabin of their Longbow.

“Shut up, Finian.” 

The reply came from both Jones twins. 

“Damn, now I’m getting told off in stereo,” Fin grumbled with a smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. 

Kal remained stoically silent, though his violet eyes betrayed his stony composure with concern for Aurora. 

“Do spaceships have showers?” Auri asked. 

“Um, sort of,” Tyler replied. 

“How do you ‘sort of’ have a shower?”

He unbuckled his harness and stood from the captain’s seat, which he was loath to take but someone had to fly them out of that hellhole. A hellhole where one of their squad was left behind...

“Permanent stations like the Academy have showers with running water. Transport ships like this have what we call refreshers. ‘Fresher for short.”

“What’s the difference?”

“A ‘fresher doesn’t use water since it’s harder and more complicated to cycle on a transport ship,” Scarlett answered gently. It was easy to forget that what was normal everyday life for the rest of them was completely new and foreign to Auri. “Instead, it uses sonics so you don’t need water. Not as thorough as a shower, but it’ll get you clean at any rate.”

“Well can someone point me in the direction of that?” Auri sighed. “I just... I know we ditched the envirosuits but I still feel like my skin is crawling.”

Zila tilted her head with interest as if she expected Auri’s skin to actually crawl and seemed disappointed when it didn’t. 

Tyler stretched and sighed. “I can show you.”

Kal sat up straighter at Tyler’s offer, a low growl escaping his lips. 

“Relax, Kal,” Ty said with a roll of his eyes. “I said I’m gonna show her where it is, not get in there with her.”

Even so, Auri seemed reluctant to leave Kal’s side. It had also not escaped Scarlett’s notice that Auri hadn’t let him out of her sight since they left Octavia. She wasn’t sure what happened between the two of them on the colony’s surface, but something had definitely shifted between them. Her growing suspicion seemed, for the moment, confirmed when Kal squeezed Aurora’s hand reassuringly. Aurora squeezed back and only then did she stand and nod to Tyler. 

“Lead the way then,” Auri said. 

Kal’s gaze followed Aurora until the door to the corridor hissed closed. 

“A little on edge, aren’t we, Pixieboy?” Finian chortled.

“Hey Fin?” Scarlett purred. 

He made a dramatic show of twisting in his chair to give her his full attention. “Yes, Scar?”

“Shut up,” she said. 

Fin knew he probably shouldn’t love it when she said that as much as he did. 

Zila was fiddling with the pizza charm dangling from her hoop earring, looking bored. She stood abruptly without a word.

“Where are you going?” Fin asked.

“To find something more interesting to do.”

“Can I come?”

“I don’t care.”

Finian nodded as if that answer satisfied him. He gave Scarlett a small salute and followed Zila from the main cabin, leaving Scarlett and Kal alone in silence. 

Scarlett watched the stars pass them by as their Longbow maintained the course Tyler had set. They didn’t know exactly what they were looking for yet, but being in motion felt better than just sitting still waiting for their next move. 

She shifted her attention to Kal, who’s gaze generally stayed on the same stars she watched, though occasionally it would flick over the closed door.

“You know you don't have to worry about Auri and my brother, right?” She spoke to the stars outside the window of the Longbow but Kal knew she was addressing him.

“Even if you two weren’t... whatever you are,” Scarlett continued, “he’s been hung up on Cat for longer than he cares to admit.”

“But Cat is gone,” Kal replied solemnly.

“If I know Ty, he won’t give up hope until every last option in the ‘Way has been exhausted. If there’s a way to get her back, Tyler will find it.”

Kal nodded stiffly to indicate he heard her but didn’t reply. 

Scarlett withdrew a nail file from her pocket and began reshaping the nails that had broken during their kerfuffle on Octavia. When she spoke again, her voice was light and conversational, almost to the point of gossip.

“So, what _is_ going on with you and Auri?” She wiggled her eyebrows up and down for emphasis.

“Nothing,” Kal replied a bit too quickly. 

Scarlett pursed her lips and crossed her arms. “Yeah, I don’t think so. Ever since Zila shot her, things have been... different.”

Kal’s jaw clenched and his hands balled into fists at his side. Being reminded of the danger Auri had been in did nothing to quell the rage that was constantly trying to bubble over. 

“Whatever is ‘going on’ between Aurora and I is not your concern,” Kal answered.

“Until it affects this squad’s ability to function as a unit,” Scarlett countered. She held out her nails to examine them. Seeming satisfied, she tucked the file back into her jumpsuit and continued. “In case you hadn’t noticed, there was something that 'went on' with Ty and Cat. And eventually, it affected the whole team.”

Kal rested his palms on his knees and remained silent. 

“Ty said that you called her ‘be’shmai’ in the bar on World Ship. Is that true?” 

As the squad’s Face, Scarlett was the most likely out of everyone to have some inkling of what that meant. She could never fully understand it, of course. She was Terran, not Syldrathi. But she at least knew the rough translation and what the implications of it were. 

“I’ll admit I’m surprised. I’ve never heard of the Pull happening with a human,” Scarlett offered. 

“Because it has not,” Kal answered stonily. He closed his eyes for a long beat and when he opened them, they seemed more crestfallen than before. “Never, not in the entire history of the Syldrathi race.”

Scarlett opened her mouth to reply, but Kal cut her off. 

“None of the normal rules seem to apply with her. She does not feel the Pull as I do. Does not understand that it is something beyond my control.” Kal sighed.

Scarlett had never heard him speak this much. 

“She is Terran,” he continued. “You Terrans take time to feel things that Syldrathi who have felt the Pull feel instantaneously. I cannot expect her to reciprocate anything.”

Scarlett studied his face. His posture. From a quick glance, he would seem as he always did—stoic, immovable, aloof. But as Scarlett studied him closer, she noticed the cracks in his composure. There was sadness but more than that, there was... yearning.

“But you want her to.”

“Yes.” Kal's answer came immediately and Scarlett couldn't help but feel a bit of sympathy for him. She didn't truly know what he was feeling but she could appreciate that he seemed to be genuine in whatever it was. In truth, she had never been in love. She had dated plenty of guys but nothing had ever felt real. Significant. None of them had been someone she would have given everything for.

“May I offer you some advice? From one Terran female on behalf of another?”

Kal shrugged. “I suppose.”

“First... lighten up,” Scarlett said. “You’re so stiff and formal all the time. Girls from Terra can’t deal with that strict formality all day every day. Second, pay attention to her.”

“I do pay—”

“Not just to where she’s at or what she’s doing,” Scarlett interrupted. “You've gotta pay attention to _her._ Listen to what she says and how she says it. Pick up on her nonverbal cues before you reply. Listen to the tone of her voice or the expression on her face. Take note of the things she likes. Things she doesn’t like. Remember them and I guarantee she will notice. Pay attention to _her._ ”

“I will admit that she surprised me,” Kal confessed. 

"Surprised you? How?"

With some carefully placed prodding, Scarlett got him to tell her more or less what happened on Octavia, including how Kal had planned to leave to avoid making Auri feel pressured or uncomfortable. How Auri had urged him not to and to let her get to know him. How she essentially asked him to wait for her to see if she could fall in love with him. How badly it would destroy him if she couldn’t. 

As he talked, Kal found that some of the anxiety and tension that had built up since discovering what Aurora was to him was beginning to melt away. Being Warbreed, he had always been encouraged to bottle things up, never talk about them, and to let them fester and roil until they stoked the fury that swam through his veins. Until they woke the Enemy within. 

Talking through his frustrations and worries, even without being able to resolve them, helped ease that tension and made it much easier to think with a level head. The longer he was away from his people, the more he wondered if he had been born into the right cabal. He had always felt like an outsider and strangely enough, this ragtag group of misfits that made up his squad was the first group of people he had ever felt like he belonged with. 

After he finished telling Scarlett about his and Aurora—no... Auri. She said the only time anyone called her Aurora was when she was in trouble and she preferred to be called Auri. If Scarlett was right, and Kal suspected she was, he needed to pay attention to Auri's preferences. He finished recounting his and Auri's conversation on Octavia III. When he was through, Kal took a deep breath and leaned back into his seat, slouching just enough for Scarlett to notice. 

“Can I confess something to you without you flying into a rage?” Scarlett asked tentatively. She pushed off the bulkhead she’d been leaning against during his story and stood squarely in front of him. 

One of Kal’s silver eyebrows rose but he did not speak. 

“I already knew most of that.” Scarlett let out an undignified snort and the look of surprised indignation on Kal’s face. 

“At some point, one of you bumped your uniglass and turned the comms on,” she explained. “Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who bothered to listen. Everyone else was occupied with their critical missions.”

Kal wanted to get angry that she had eavesdropped and then let him tell the entire story anyway. If he hadn't left what was left of the Warbreed cabal, he definitely would have raged... but he found he just couldn’t muster it. Instead, he let out a laugh that sounded like a bark. 

“Scarlett Jones,” he remarked, “you are quite possibly the most adept Face in the entire Legion.”


	2. Chapter 2

As Kal was recounting what had taken place on Octavia, Auri had learned just what a sonic shower entailed. If someone asked her to explain the science of it, that would have been a test she would have undoubtedly failed. But she understood the gist of it well enough to figure out how to work the mechanisms. Somehow, through science and she suspected a complicated bit of calculations, sonic sound waves replicated a shower with running water. Auri wasn’t entirely sure how it worked, but the important thing was that she no longer felt like her skin was crawling and her hair no longer itched. Though she wondered how long she would see phantom particles of blue pollen threatening to touch her skin. 

It wasn’t until she had finished her routine in the ‘fresher and put on a fresh clean jumpsuit that she realized how thoroughly exhausted she was. She tucked Magellan back into her breast pocket and yawned. Tyler had told her where the girls’ cabins were but at the moment, she couldn’t remember whether he’d said they were on the port side or starboard side. She probably should have been paying more attention. 

After a moment’s indecision, she opted to go through the corridor that led to the port side cabins. She vaguely recalled him saying something about how it would be easy to remember because men were always right... or something. 

She was pleased to see that when she found the port-side corridor, there was indeed a row of doors leading to individual crew cabins. She hadn’t been formally assigned a cabin yet but the rest of the squad had.

Each door had a small control panel that lit up according to the cabin’s occupancy. Red meant the cabin was occupied. Green indicated that the cabin was assigned to a member of the crew but was presently vacant. Blue meant the cabin had not been assigned or claimed. 

Auri stopped in front of the first door with a blue light glowing softly from the control panel. She placed her palm against the panel as Tyler had instructed her and waited for the doorlock to click open.

_AH, BOSS, I FEEL OBLIGATED TO INFORM YOU THAT—_

“Magellan, hush,” Auri said, exhaustion leaking from her voice. 

_YES BUT YOU OUGHT TO KNOW THAT THIS CABIN—_

“Silent mode,” Auri grumbled as the door softly clicked open. If a tiny handheld computer could have huffed in frustration, she was sure Magellan would have done just that. 

The cabin was neat and tidy, albeit small. Though, Auri reminded herself, individual crew cabins weren’t meant for lounging and socializing. They were meant for sleeping, which was exactly what she wanted to do. 

She pulled back the sheets, standard Legion issued and starched to within an inch of their lives. If sheets, ya know, had lives. Still, after sleeping in a shipping crate and then a cramped bunk bed in an apartment remodeled to resemble a Betraskan habitat, it was nice to finally have a bed to herself. 

She sat on the edge of the bed and kicked her boots off. In truth, she could have just slept in them—but it felt wrong to sleep in a bed with shoes on. Even if they were space boots and a space bed on a _space ship._ She wondered when it would stop feeling surreal. 

At times, she felt like she needed to pinch herself and whisper, “Is this really my life? Other times, she took it in stride that this was her life now. It was adventurous and unpredictable and a little scary but she found herself admitting that she didn’t hate it. She understood that Tyler's squad was made up of the misfits that no other squad Alpha wanted. A twinge of guilt hit her when she remembered that it was her fault Tyler didn't get the squad he wanted. But she had to wonder if the universe works in mysterious ways and everything happened the way it was supposed to. Auri never really bought into fate, but she also had to wonder if any other squad could have accomplished everything Tyler's misfits had done. 

She lamented not being able to get to know Cat better. Tyler was taking her loss hard even though he tried not to show it. Auri only recognized it because she had been doing the same thing since waking up over two hundred years later than she should have to the realization that everyone she'd ever known was dead. Out of all of them, Auri saw Scarlett as the one she could probably build the closest friendship with. She reminded her of her friends from home. Finian used sarcasm and dry humor as a cover to avoid thinking about how lonely he was (another technique Auri was perfecting). Zila just scared her. Justifiably so, Auri thought, since Zila shot her. Set to stun or not. And then there was Kal. 

He was the biggest mystery of all to her. But once he explained, both in the med bay and on Octavia, he made a little more sense. At least, his actions made sense. She reveled at the bond that could make his people love instantly. The Pull, he called it. One one hand, she was a little jealous. Having something like that eliminated the messy complicated part of getting to know someone. But, on the other hand, it also eliminated the whole process of falling in love. Auri was certain that whatever crushes she'd had and boys she had dated before could never add up to something like this. Yet, she felt a bit relieved that she could still experience that thrill of falling if she wanted to. 

All things considered, she told herself, if she had to be at the end of some invisible tether, at least the guy on the other end was somewhat easy on the eyes. Okay, _very_ easy on the eyes, she conceded with herself. Kal was... well, not to put too fine a point on it, but Kal was the most breathtakingly stunning person she had ever seen. She teased him with the _Lord of the Rings_ comments, but it was mostly to ease her own nerves. He was otherwordly and not just because he was from another actual planet. He just had this ethereal grace that Auri could never muster even if she tried.

And the fact that _he_ wanted _her_ just astonished her. Still, if he hadn't been there on Octavia, she wasn't sure how she would have gotten through it. Even though she hadn't known him long at all, he just had this way of making her feel... grounded. Which was ridiculous, considering they were all floating through the stars in a space ship. 

She shivered slightly, only this time she couldn’t blame it on feeling unclean. No, this shiver was from a chill, though whether it was from being in the cold of space or from the lingering sorrow of what had happened on Octavia, Auri didn’t know. Fortunately for her, there was an Aurora Legion jacket folded pristinely at the foot of the bed. She shrugged in on over her jumpsuit and wriggled beneath the covers of the bed. 

The moment her head hit the pillow, it became nearly impossible to keep her eyes open. If she hadn’t been so tired, she would have undoubtedly noticed that despite the control panel on the door lighting up blue, the shoulders and collar of the jacket she had shrugged on were blood red—the signature color of the Aurora Legion’s Tanks.


	3. Chapter 3

“Well, this is interesting.”

Several sighs permeated the silence, followed by one that was severely more dramatic than the rest. 

“I know, I know. ‘Shut up, Finian.’ Amiright?”

“What are you even doing here?”

“Are you kidding? This is free entertainment!”

“Well, go be entertained somewhere else.”

Auri blinked at the fluorescent lighting that blared overhead. She squinted to keep as much of the light out as possible and through blurred vision, she could make out the silhouettes of Kal, Tyler, Finian, and Scarlett. 

“Wassamatter?” Arui mumbled, still half asleep.

As she sat up, the covers slipped down to her waist and Finian let out a low long whistle.

“Is that Pixieboy’s jacket?” He asked with delight. “Oh, this is adorable.”

“Finian!” Tyler growled. “Find somewhere else to be. Now.”

Fin chortled as he backed out of the room. He whistled some tune Auri didn’t recognize as he retreated down the corridor and Tyler shook his head with annoyance. 

Auri hastily glanced at the red stripe on the shoulder of the jacket and her eyes widened in horrified embarrassment. She shrugged out of the jacket and then instantly wished she hadn’t. She forgot how cold space was. Still, she kicked the covers off of her and scrambled out of the bed. 

“Wait, I thought this was a vacant room?”

“Why did you think that?” Scarlett coaxed gently. She really was born to be a Face, Auri thought. She was always level-headed and knew just how to approach any situation. 

“Because... the light on the door was blue,” Auri explained weakly. “Does—doesn’t that mean the room was vacant?”

“It’s supposed to, yes,” Scarlett replied. 

“It’s also the designated males’ wing,” Tyler supplied. “The females’ cabins are on the starboard side.”

Auri suddenly remembered what Tyler had said when he told her where to find the cabins.  _ “Girls are on the starboard side, boys are on the port side. It ought to be easy to remember because as Scarlett loves to remind me, girls are always right.” _

“This is my room,” Kal said unnecessarily. 

“But then why was the light blue and not green?” Tyler’s brow scrunched in confusion. 

“Well,” Scarlett said gently, assessing the contents of the room. “Aside from the Tanks Legion jacket, I don’t really see any personal effects that would indicate to the automated system that the room had been claimed.”

“Because I have none,” Kal said to no one in particular, his violet eyes trained on the floor. His reply was followed with an immediate and uncomfortable silence.  For once, Scarlett didn’t seem to know what to say. Tyler pulled at the back of his neck and stared at the ceiling. 

“I don’t either,” Auri offered, her voice small and gentle. 

Kal’s head shot up to meet Auri’s eyes and at that moment, Auri began to realize that she and Kal were more alike than she initially thought. What little personal effects Auri had brought with her from Terra were in a crate somewhere among the  _ Hadfield _ wreckage. 

Standing at the foot of the bed, Auri reached her hand out to Kal. After a moment’s hesitation, he took it and their fingers wove together. With her free hand, she tentatively reached up and took one of Kal’s five braids between her fingers. She had secretly been fascinated by his hair. It felt like strands of pure silk and it shimmered just as brilliantly. She seemed to forget the Jones twins were still there. Something happened whenever she was close to Kal. Something that made her feel like they were the only two people in a room.

Out of the corner of her eye, Auri saw Scarlett trying to subtly shove Tyler through the narrow doorway. She caught Auri’s eye and winked. The door hissed closed and only then did Auri realize that she and Kal were alone... in his room. Which felt exponentially smaller now that he was in it. 

The difference in height between them was staggering. So much so that she had to take a step back so she could look up at him. He regarded her with a mixture of longing and confusion. 

“You came to my room.”

It was a statement, not a question. 

“I didn’t know it was yours,” Auri admitted. The last thing she wanted to do was give him the wrong idea. “It was the first blue light I saw.”

She gave him an apologetic look, but his expression didn’t change. 

“Still,” he insisted. His eyes drifted down to the jacket she had hastily removed, now crumpled on the floor. 

Just when Auri began to wonder if he ever broke from that stoic composure, he smirked at her. 

“Hey now,” Auri chided with a smirk to match his. “Don’t go getting any funny ideas. I was to the point of delirious and I crashed in the first room I came across.”

“Hmm,” he replied. “And the jacket?”

“I was cold.” 

And okay, so what if he was the last thing she was thinking of as she drifted off to sleep? That thoughts of him as she was nestled warmly in that jacket helped her get the most peaceful sleep she’d had since waking up in this decade. He didn’t need to know that. Not yet, at least. 

Auri stretched, just for something to do to break his piercing gaze. “What time is it, anyway?”

Traveling through space, there was no sun or shadows to indicate time of day. That was something she wondered if she would ever get used to. 

“Nearly midnight.” Kal’s voice was as smooth as melted chocolate. Auri could listen to him speak for hours on end except that Kal didn’t talk that much. “We had decided to get a few hours sleep and were heading to our respective rooms.”

Which would explain why there was such an audience when she woke up. But that didn't explain...

“What was Scarlett doing over here if this is the boys’ side of the ship?”

“She offered to take the first watch and was coming to retrieve a book from her brother’s room.”

“Oh,” Auri said. “So... you were coming back here to go to sleep. To your room. Which is this one.”

Kal’s silver eyebrows rose in amusement. “Indeed.” 

“So, I probably need to leave now. So you can, y’know, sleep.”

Auri gestured to the standard-issue Legion bed which looked barely suitable for someone Kal’s size. She felt like a moron. 

The expression on his face didn’t look like he wanted her to leave, however. Perhaps it was why his reply surprised her. 

“If you would like me to show you where the girls’ cabins are, I would be happy to.”

“Y—you would?”

“Of course,” he answered as he bent to pick up the jacket from the floor. 

Auri reached up and twirled the white pieces of her hair around her finger, refusing to meet his gaze as she replied. “I just... I thought you—”

“You assumed I would want you to stay in here with me?”

“Well... yes.”

Kal’s gaze softened and he reached his hand out to her, which she accepted. His grip was firm and confident and it sent a little jolt of excitement through her whenever their hands joined. She distinctly remembered that if they hadn’t been wearing envirosuits to protect them from inhaling blue alien pollen, she would have almost definitely kissed him on Octavia. She jerked her head away to hide the blush creeping up her neck and cheeks as Kal led her out into the corridor. 

“Do not misunderstand me, Auri,” Kal was saying. “It would bring me immense happiness that you may one day be that comfortable with me, but we did agree to ‘see where this goes’ as you put it. Plus, assuming you would want to stay in here would most assuredly make me a jackass.”

Auri gaped at him, barely registering the reference to their running joke. “Did... did you just call me Auri?”

“That is your name, is it not?” The smirk had returned to his mouth and Auri’s stomach did a backflip at the sight of it. 

“It’s just... you’ve never called me Auri before.”

Kal shrugged as he tucked his head to avoid the top of a doorframe. Auri glided right through the doorway with plenty of room to spare between her head and the ceiling. 

“I prefer Kal over Kaliis. It only makes sense to respect your preference as well.” He squeezed her hand reassuringly as he led her down another corridor. She was grateful she’d accepted his offer because she was wholly and completely lost. 

“What a complex puzzle you are, Legolas,” Auri marveled. 

Kal’s brow creased with confusion even as he chuckled. “I still have no idea who that is.”

“I gotta get this squad up to speed. I mean, I get that  _ Lord of the Rings  _ is an ancient classic by now, but surely there’s a recording of it somewhere. What do you guys call them? Stims?”

“You mean sims?”

“Yeah, those.”

Kal gestured to Auri’s uniglass sticking out of her breast pocket. “If this sim of yours still exists, that should be able to find it.”

Auri tapped the glass gently as if she was petting a cat. “You hear that, Magellan? Get to work.”

_ AS YOU WISH, BOSS. _

“Was that... a Princess Bride reference?” She wondered incredulously. 

_ THAT WOULD BE INCONCEIVABLE.  _

“Oh my gods... or, the maker. Or whatever it is we pray to now.”

They rounded another corner and Auri saw a row of doors identical to the ones on the boys’ wing. She found herself wishing that it had taken longer to reach their destination, but all too soon, Kal stopped in front of the first door with a blue light softly pulsing on the control panel. Auri pressed her hand to it and the door hissed open.

“How delightfully standard issue,” she remarked once she saw the pristine little cabin. 

They stood at the open doorway for one awkward moment before Kal withdrew his hand from hers. 

“Is there anything else you need?” 

She opened her mouth to tell him no, but hesitated, surprising herself by almost asking him to stay. She truly didn’t know what it was about him but she felt safer and more at peace when he was with her. But the words died on her lips when she realized he was already giving up sleep by escorting her here. And the whole purpose for showing her to a cabin of her own was because staying together in one of those tiny little rooms was almost assuredly a bad idea. If this was going to have any shot at working, she didn't want to muck it up by moving too fast. She didn’t doubt that if she asked, he would stay with her all night, regardless of needing to sleep. She didn’t want to put him in that position, especially considering...

“When are you supposed to take over the watch?”

“Oh three hundred hours,” he replied dutifully, ever the soldier. 

“You probably need to get some sleep then,” she pointed out. 

“Probably,” he agreed, though he made no motion to leave.

“I just realized...” Auri said, “I have no idea how to get to the galley or the main cabin from here. Is there a map or something?”

“Finian is supposed to relieve me at oh six hundred. Would you like for me to come back and collect you?”

“Collect me?” Auri snorted. “Like a rare stamp or something?”

But she bumped her hip against his to make sure he knew she was teasing him.  “As long as you don’t mind...”

“Trust me, you will be a welcomed sight at the end of my watch.”

Auri felt her cheeks and the tips of her ears redden with blush, but when she peered past him into the empty cabin, she shivered again. 

“Are you still cold?”

Auri shrugged, preparing to say no but before she could get a word out, Kal had draped the Tanks jacket across her shoulders. She looked up at him in surprise. 

“Keep it. It suits you.”

She wasn’t about to argue. Secretly, she had always wanted a boy to give her his letter jacket in high school. This was a million times better. A letter jacket now would feel like some cheap imitation. She shifted her weight from side to side, trying and failing to stifle a yawn. 

“You should get some rest,” Kal insisted. “I hope your uniglass can locate the sim you seem so fond of.”

“Yeah me too.” 

“Goodnight, Auri.” He turned his back to the door and Auri felt her throat constrict. They both needed sleep but she didn't want him to go. It shouldn’t bother her this much for him to simply leave the room. She barely knew him.

“Hey, Kal?”

He stopped and turned back toward her. “Yes?”

“If Magellan does find that movie—err... sim—whatever. I don’t suppose I could convince you to watch it with me?”

“Will I finally understand all of these references you make?”

Auri snorted. “Yes. You’ll meet Legolas and Elrond and all of the rest of the Middle-Earth crew.”

Kal gave her a genuine smile. “Then I would love to watch it with you.”

Genuine happiness flooded through her, the first time she had felt truly happy since waking up on the Aurora Academy space station. 

“Well...” she put her hands on his shoulders, stood on her tiptoes, and kissed his cheek. “Goodnight then.” 

She didn’t even try to hold back the laugh of Kal’s shocked and somewhat punchdrunk expression as the door hissed closed between them. She slipped her uniglass out of her pocket and set it on the tiny table built into the wall. 

“Hey, Magellan?”

_ YEAH BOSS? _

“Can you wake me up at five forty-five?”

Her uniglass was a robot. An A.I. that couldn’t change the tone of its voice. But Auri could have sworn she heard the smirk in its reply. 

_ ALARM SET FOR FIVE FORTY-FIVE AM. SHALL I MARK YOUR CALENDAR AS ‘BUSY - DATE WITH SPACE LEGOLAS’? _

Auri rolled her eyes but didn’t silence the uniglass. Pulling the jacket tightly around her, she slipped under the covers and punched the pillow into a more comfortable position. And for the first time since all of this mess began, she looked forward to morning. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> JUST KIDDING. I thought this was over but as I wrote more for Kal and Auri, I realized it could fit in nicely to the story I'd already started.

**BEEEEEEP!**

A shrill metallic sound reverberated off the tiny walls of the cabin. Auri bolted upright in bed, her head whipping back and forth looking for an intruder or some other immediate threat. But her room was empty and the only thing that moved was the pinpricks of stars outside the tiny window of her cabin. 

_ OH GOOD, YOU’RE AWAKE. _

“Wh—Wait, was that you that made that sound, Magellan?”

_ I TRIED CALLING YOUR NAME BUT YOU KEPT ON SNORING. IT IS NOW FIVE FORTY-EIGHT. _

“Okay, first off, I don’t snore,” Auri protested. “And second, just… don’t give me a heart attack next time I ask you to wake me up.”

She threw back the covers and swung her feet off the side of the bed. She still felt groggy, having only gotten a few hours of sleep. Her muscles ached and she realized with a pained gasp that some were too sore to stretch over her head. 

_ WELL, YOU’RE THE ONE WHO TOLD ME TO WAKE YOU UP. OH, AND… YES, YOU DO. _

The uniglass played back an audio recording of what could only be Auri snoring softly as she slept. 

“Silent mode,” she grumbled. She longed for some cold water to splash on her face but in space, the best she could hope for was another sonic shower. But she didn’t have time for that so she settled for rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and running her hands through her hair to tame it as best she could. 

She wasn’t sure why she even cared about her appearance. They were fugitives in the middle of a space war. And though she tried not to think of herself as irresistible (certainly, no one back on Terra would have called her that), she imagined that she could roll around in mud and Kal would still be smitten with her.

She sighed as she glanced in the small mirror mounted on the wall. She wondered if this boy would ever stop being such a mystery to her. 

“I don’t suppose you found my movie, huh, Magellan?”

_ LORD OF THE RINGS: FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING. DIRECTED BY PETER JACKSON AND RELEASED IN THE YEAR TWO THOUSAND AND ONE.  _

“Holy cake! You found it?!” She twisted around to glance at the little uniglass so quickly she felt her neck muscles seized up like they did the time she and her mother had been driving home and another car had hit them from behind. “You could have said something!”

_ I AM A COMPUTER, AURORA. I DO NOT REQUIRE SLEEP. AFTER SEARCHING FOR THREE HOURS AND THIRTY-SEVEN MINUTES, I SUCCESSFULLY LOCATED A COPY OF THE SIM YOU REQUESTED.  _

A swell of panic surged through her, her breath coming quicker and shallower. Her hands grew clammy and she wiped them on the pants of her jumpsuit. When she had asked Kal if he would watch the movie with her, Auri hadn’t expected Magellan to actually find it… and definitely not so quickly. She figured the uniglass might locate it months from now and, assuming they were all still alive and not fighting for their lives, they might manage to find some downtime to watch it. She certainly hadn’t expected it would be a real possibility mere hours after she’d made the request.

Auri thought back to her high school years, which wasn’t all that difficult since, for her, it felt like only weeks had passed instead of two hundred and twenty years. Sure, she had worked hard and studied about Octavia III so she could join the colony. But she had also lived the life of any normal teenage girl… which included going out on dates. 

She suddenly snorted and she imagined that if Magellan had eyebrows, he would have raised them at that moment. Auri just couldn’t picture herself snuggled on a couch, tucked underneath Kal’s arm as she had with Dylan, the last Terran boy she’d dated. With a pang, she realized that Dylan was long dead. She wondered if he’d had a good life. She hoped he had—they had gotten along well and if Auri hadn’t been leaving for Octavia, they probably would have kept on dating.

She shook her head to bring herself out of her reverie. She knew she ought to be focusing her energy and concern on more pressing matters, but sometimes she felt like she was getting whiplash from the abrupt change her life had undergone. Sure, she was possibly possessed by some ancient life force that would trigger some unknown weapon against the galaxy’s most deadly threat but she was also a 17-year-old girl. She needed her life to maintain  _ some  _ semblance of normal.

“What time is it, Magellan?”

_ ZERO SIX OH THREE.  _

Kal had said that Fin was taking over the watch at six o’clock, so she imagined he’d be here any minute. She ran her hand through her hair one more time, tucking the strands of snow white hair behind her ear just as a knock sounded on the opposite side of the door.

“Um, it’s open… I think,” she mumbled. 

The door hissed open. Kal looked tired but a spark danced in his eyes when he saw Auri still wearing his jacket from the night before. 

Auri shifted her weight and quickly glanced at the floor as she mumbled, “The books all tell you how cold space is, but none of them really  _ get  _ that point across well enough. Space is  _ freezing.” _

Kal didn’t seem to know what to say in reply, so he said nothing. 

“Anyway, good morning,” Auri said, zipping the jacket up to her neck. 

“Good morning. Did you sleep well?” 

Auri shrugged. “Well enough, I guess. You, er… look tired.”

“A very long, uneventful watch can be tiresome, but I would rather that than the alternative,” Kal said flatly. 

“Right,” Auri said, “because the alternative would mean something was after us.”

Kal simply nodded. 

Auri bobbed on the heels of her feet for a moment, her hands clasped tightly behind her back. There was a heavy beat of silence before they both began speaking at the same time. 

“I suppose you would like me to—”

“Can you believe Magellan actually found—”

Kal held his hands out, gesturing for Auri to continue. 

“Oh, it’s nothing,” she said. “I was just surprised that Magellan found the first Lord of the Rings movie so quickly.”

Kal’s silver eyebrows rose slightly and despite the exhaustion that he’d been holding at bay, his eyes lit with mild amusement when he said, “I believe there is a sim projection screen in the rec room. It is near the galley. Would you like me to show you the way?”

Auri’s face fell slightly. From the sound of it, Kal intended to show her where she could watch the film but didn’t have any intention of watching it with her. She mentally scolded herself. Kal and the rest of the squad might be around her age, but they were all trained professionals who had better things to do than watch a twenty-first-century fantasy film. Though she tried to hide the disappointment in her voice, some still seeped through her words when she replied. 

“Oh… sure, that sounds fine.”

She prayed to whatever holy entity that Magellan didn’t say some smart ass remark but thankfully, the uniglass remained quiet. 

She fell in step with Kal as he guided her through the ship, pointing out which corridors led where. In what felt like no time, they reached the galley, where Tyler and Scarlett were talking softly over a modest breakfast of ration bars and instant coffee. 

“These things taste like cardboard. You know what I miss when we’re off-world?” Scarlett mused. “Bacon… hot, crispy bacon.”

Auri could practically hear her own stomach growl at the mention of bacon. 

Scarlett glanced up as Kal and Auri entered from the corridor.

“Morning,” she said as she chewed a bite of ration bar. When she needed to, she could be the definition of diplomatic and refined, but Auri was pleased to see there was a casual, relaxed side of Scarlett as well. 

Kal motioned to a small doorway off to the left side of the galley. “The rec room is through there.”

Auri nodded, hating herself for the lump that formed in her throat. This was stupid, she told herself. She was stupid for getting upset over something so trivial. He probably wouldn’t even like the movie anyway, she tried reasoning with herself. 

Kal dipped his head toward the rec room. “I need to brief our Alpha on the details of my watch shift, and then if you like, I will join you.”

“Maker’s sake, Kal, just call me Tyler,” their Alpha grumbled. “We’re wanted fugitives. I don’t think anyone really cares what rank any of us are anymore.”

Auri’s stomach flipped. He  _ did  _ want to watch it with her after all. Her mood really shouldn’t be so easily influenced by anything Kal did or didn’t do, but she just wanted so badly to feel some semblance of normal. She believed that this group of misfits that had been thrown together by fate could grow to be real friends… and she desperately needed friends. Especially with all of her weird, newfound abilities that would make most normal people go running for the hills. Despite some of their earlier misgivings, they seemed to embrace Auri and all her weirdness. 

“But don’t you, er… need to get some sleep?” Auri wondered aloud.

Kal shrugged noncommittally. “We have days before we will reach our next destination. There will be time for sleep. I am very curious about this sim you keep referencing.”

“Ooooh, your uniglass actually found it?” Scarlett perked up with interest. 

“Yep,” Auri said, a hint of pride shining through her voice. “Magellan said he found the first one at least. I’m not sure about the second or third ones.”

_ YE OF LITTLE FAITH, TERRAN. I HAVE LOCATED ALL THREE INSTALLMENTS, BOTH THE ORIGINAL THEATRICAL EDITIONS AND THE EXTENDED DIRECTOR’S CUTS. _

Auri whistled, impressed. “Magellan, I think I might actually love you.”

_ GROSS, BOSS. I AM A HIGHLY ADVANCED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. YOU ARE A DIRT CHILD. IT WOULD NEVER WORK.  _

“On second thought,” Auri groaned with mock annoyance, “silent mode.”

“Well, when you take Magellan out of time out,” Scarlett chuckled, “transfer those sims to my uniglass. You’ve piqued my interest now and I want to see what they’re all about.”

“I have to admit, I’m also curious,” Tyler added. 

“Well, jeeze, does everyone just wanna watch it, then?” Auri joked. 

Just then, Zila traipsed in, her eyes quickly passing over everyone in the galley as she tore open the wrapper of a ration bar with her teeth. “Watch what?” 

“Lord of the Rings,” Auri replied. 

“Seen it.”

Scarlett let out a small sound of disbelief while Auri just stood in stunned silence. 

“You’ve seen it?” Scarlett repeated. 

Zila’s eyebrows shot up, seemingly unconcerned about everyone else’s surprise. “Why is that difficult to believe?”

“Because it’s a two-hundred-year-old sim that no one else had ever even heard of before Auri showed up,” Tyler pointed out. 

Zila shrugged. “I enjoy obscure parts of other cultures.”

“Clearly…” Tyler mumbled. 

“Well, if we’re going to watch it, we need to wait for Fin to finish his watch shift,” Scarlett insisted. “I  _ know  _ he wants to see what it’s all about.”

Auri’s head was beginning to hurt. She hadn’t really imagined this to be a whole-squad activity and yet, nearly everyone was inviting themselves to be part of the watch party. 

“Um, okay then,” she said quietly. 

“Come on,” Scarlett said, linking her arm through Auri’s and leading her toward the rec room. “Kal still needs to brief Tyler and we can set up the rec to make it more comfortable.”

Without waiting for a reply, Scarlett led Auri through the doorway and out of the galley. 


	5. Chapter 5

Scarlett chewed on her lower lip in deep concentration. Auri glanced between Scarlett and the long, stiff bench that was meant to serve as a sofa. There were cushions bolted to the seat and backrest, but it still didn’t look comfortable. 

“What if we get all the extra pillows from the unused cabins and just throw them all on the floor?” Scarlett suggested. 

Auri snorted. It was something she and her sister would have done if they’d been planning a slumber party. “It’s really not that big of a deal,” she muttered. 

“Not a big deal?” Scarlett scoffed. “You’ve practically been talking about this sim since you woke up!” 

“I mean, I know but…” she trailed off. 

“But what?”

“I didn’t think the whole squad would just drop everything to watch it,” Auri admitted. “I thought…” She willed herself not to turn red but she could already feel the flush creeping up her neck. 

Scarlett, ever the diplomat, suddenly seemed to understand. “Oh! Oh, Auri, I’m sorry!” She dropped onto the bench and pulled Auri down to sit beside her. “I’m sorry,” she repeated. “I assumed it might be awkward if it was just you and Kal. That’s why I invited myself and the rest of the squad… so it wouldn’t be tense for you.”

Auri let out a nervous chuckle. “Things… actually haven’t been as awkward as I expected they might be.”

“Really?” Scarlett’s eyebrow arched in surprise. “Kal is just so… serious all the time.”

“It  _ is  _ a little weird, but not in the way you’d expect,” Auri admitted. “There’s just no in-between. Sometimes he’s stiff as a board and drier than the Sahara desert. But then other times, he acts like we’ve known each other forever.”

Scarlett adjusted the hem of her skirt and sighed. “How much do you know about Syldrathi culture?”

“Aside from what I’ve learned from this squad you mean?” Auri joked. “Zilch.”

“But Kal did explain about the Pull, right?”

“Err, sort of.”

“Can I share some info with you, then?”

Auri shrugged. “Sure.” She glanced at the doorway that led into the galley with a nervous expression. 

“Don’t worry,” Scarlett reassured her. “Tyler will keep him talking as long as we need him to.”

Auri relaxed. She was grateful for Scarlett. Truly, she was grateful for everyone on the squad (though Zila sometimes still made her nervous), but Scarlett was the one she felt like she could really talk to. Someone who could become a real friend. 

“So, most of this is what I learned through my diplomat studies,” Scarlett began. She tucked her feet underneath her and leaned against the armrest of the bench. “The Pull activates when you’re fifteen years old.”

“So, Kal has had this feeling since he was fifteen?” 

“No, I was getting to that. It either activates at fifteen  _ or  _ the first time you see your soulmate with your own eyes.”

“Soulmate…” Auri echoed.

“Soulmate is just one term for it,” Scarlett went on. “The Syldrathi call it your lifelove. There really is no generalized term for it in our language.”

“Okay, well that makes a little more sense why, the first time he saw me, he looked at me like I was some rare creature that was long thought extinct or something.”

“For Syldrathi who meet their lifeloves after their fifteenth birthday, it can definitely come as a shock,” Scarlett agreed. 

“Yeah, but imagine the other alternative.”

Scarlett’s eyebrow arched again. “I’m not following you.”

“Think about it,” Auri posed. “You said it activates when you’re fifteen. So what if there’s someone you grew up with and you absolutely hate them. Like, they’ve been your arch nemesis since you were old enough to throw dirt at each other. And then, BAM! You turn fifteen and suddenly you’re like, ‘oh crap, now I have to be bonded to this person forever?’”

“You’re thinking of this from a human perspective.”

“Well… duh. I  _ am  _ human,” Auri pointed out.

“But Kal is not,” Scarlett gently reminded her. “For the Syldrathi, it wouldn’t be like that at all. They may have hated that person prior to the Pull activating, but once it hits, they fall head over heels. Instantly. I don’t want to scare you or overwhelm you, but I think it’s important that you understand this.” Scarlett reached out and squeezed Auri’s shoulder reassuringly. “When the Pull activates, they don’t just see the person and think ‘oh, cool that person is my soulmate.’ They fall in love.  _ Real  _ love. Not lust or infatuation. I’m talking, unconditional love.”

“Instantly?” Auri breathed. 

“Instantly,” Scarlett confirmed. 

Auri knew her mouth was hanging open but she couldn’t manage to do anything other than gape at Scarlett. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. On one hand, she figured it would be a relief to know someone is the love of your life without all that messy heartache in between. But then again… that messy heartache and everything in between was part of what made falling in love so amazing. 

Granted, Auri hadn’t ever been in love. She’d certainly felt the butterflies and had more than her fair share of crushes during high school, but actual love? Auri strongly doubted that she had ever fallen in love. Surely, she would have known if she had. She thought she might have been falling for Dylan but they had never gotten the chance to fully see where that would have gone.

Suddenly, she felt sad for Kal. That he never got to experience that feeling. Like you’re on a roller coaster in a perpetual drop. That exhilarating feeling of wanting more, being delighted and terrified at the same time because you didn’t know what was coming next. Kal didn’t talk about his home world much. On Octavia, she had lamented that he hadn’t gotten to choose, to which he’d given her the most swoon-worthy reply she could have ever imagined. Truly, it had made her slightly weak at the knees. Still, she wondered if there had been anyone. Someone he’d possibly had feelings for… or someone who had feelings for him?

“Once the Pull is active,” Auri wondered, “can they turn it off? If they don’t want to be with their lifelove?”

“What, you mean like, reject it?”

Auri nodded.

“No,” Scarlett replied with certainty. “It isn’t something voluntary that they can just… reject if they don’t like the person they’re paired with. They will  _ always  _ have those feelings once the Pull activates.”

Auri looked aghast. “Mother custard…” she whispered.

“What?”

“Something Kal said on Octavia…” Auri said slowly, trying to remember his words. “He said when our mission was over, he was leaving the squad.”

Scarlett sat up straighter. Clearly, this was news to her. 

“He isn’t anymore,” Auri rushed to clarify. “But on Octavia, he said he would leave so I didn’t feel pressured. It makes more sense now, the way you explained it. Son of a biscuit, he was just gonna leave and go Maker knows where and just…” she trailed off, unable or possibly unwilling to finish her thought out loud. 

Scarlett squeezed her shoulder again. “It sounds like he was willing to go off on his own so that his feelings for you, feelings he can’t control, didn’t make him do something either one of you would regret.”

“But…” Auri’s eyes welled. “Wouldn’t that be painful?”

“Excruciating, I imagine,” Scarlett surmised. 

Auri suddenly had the urge to leap up and go find Kal so she could hug him. But she remembered that unsolicited physical contact was not something the Syldrathi people endorsed warmly like Terrans did. She still wasn’t sure how she felt about Kal yet. So far, she liked him, but she couldn’t just jump in head first with no abandon like he could. 

Scarlett cleared her throat and Auri took her wordless suggestion to change the subject. 

“I think extra pillows from the vacant rooms are about as good as this is gonna get,” Auri declared. 

“Right,” Scarlett said with a curt nod. “You take the girls’ wing and I’ll take the boys’?” 

“Works for me.”

“Great. Magellan?” Scarlett called. Auri’s uniglass lit up. “Send messages to the rest of the squad’s unis that we’re all set as soon as Fin finishes his watch.”

_ ACCORDING TO LEGIONNAIRE MADRAN’S LOG, SHE SWITCHED WATCH SHIFTS WITH LEGIONNAIRE DE SEEL.  _

“Well, how about that,” Scarlett ruminated. “Oh and Magellan, just call them Fin and Zila for Maker’s sake.”

_ SENDING MESSAGES TO THE UNIGLASSES ASSIGNED TO TYLER JONES, KALIIS GILWRAETH, AND FINIAN DE KARRAN DE SEEL.  _

Scarlett rolled her eyes as she stood, stretching her arms above her head. She followed Auri through the doorway into the galley, but Tyler and Kal were nowhere to be seen. 

“Ty probably went to hit the head,” Scarlett guessed. “I’ll meet you back here in ten?”

Auri nodded and turned toward the corridor that, thanks to Kal, she knew led back to the girls’ cabins. Scarlett headed in the opposite direction toward the boys’ cabin but Auri called out to her. 

“Hey, Scarlett?”

The Jones twin stopped and her short red hair swished as she turned back around. 

“Thanks,” Auri said. “For, y’know, talking with me and all.”

A wide, genuine smile lit Scarlett’s face. “Anytime. I mean that.” She turned to leave. “Oh, and Auri? There are generic legion jackets in the surplus closet… but I can  _ totally  _ understand if you’d rather keep that one.”

She gave Auri an exaggerated wink before spinning on her heel and trotting away before Auri could retort. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Auri finally gets the squad to watch LOTR with her.

After retrieving as many pillows as they could carry (and in Auri’s case, she had unfolded a fitted sheet, dumping all of the pillows into it and dragging it behind her like a sled), Scarlett and Auri met back up in the galley. 

“I checked on Zila,” Scarlett announced. “She says she’s positive she’s fine with taking Fin’s shift and doesn’t want to join us for the sim.”

“She’s a bit of a loner, isn’t she?” Auri supplied. 

“When I figure her out, I’ll get back to you,” Scarlett huffed with mild frustration. 

“Where are the boys?” Auri asked.

Her arms full of pillows, Scarlett inclined her head toward the rec room. 

“Typical,” Auri chuckled, “they get all settled and leave us to do the work.”

“You said that, not me,” Scarlett teased. She leaned against the control panel, using her hip to press the button that opened the door. 

Inside the rec room, Auri saw Fin already sprawled across half of the bench, Tyler reading something on his uniglass, and Kal sitting with perfect posture at the far end of the bench. He kept shooting Fin glances that bordered between annoyed and perplexed whenever Fin would readjust. In the span of under a minute, Fin had switched from trying to lay his feet across Kal’s lap to asking if Kal would take it personally if Fin used his thigh as a pillow. When he saw Auri and Scarlett enter, he stood abruptly, dumping Finian off him. He strode toward Auri purposefully, dipping his head low enough that his mouth was inches from her ear. 

“Please,” he murmured quietly enough that only she could hear him, “let me help you with those. Just to get him to leave me alone.”

Auri snorted a tiny laugh. She gestured to the sheet full of pillows, giving him free rein to arrange them however he liked. 

_BOSS._

“Yes, Magellan?”

_I HAVE TRANSFERRED THE SIM INTO THE PROJECTOR. THE KEYPAD TO YOUR LEFT CONTAINS THE CONTROLS._

“Thanks, Magellan. You can go into silent mode now.”

_WHAT IF I WANTED TO PROVIDE COMMENTARY WHILE YOU WATCH?_

“Silent mode,” Auri commanded. She imagined she could hear the huff of indignation that her uniglass surely would have made if it had been human. 

Fin suddenly jumped up off the bench. Kal’s head snapped up to see what the Betraskan was doing. But Finian strode right past him and Auri and into the galley, returning moments later with his arms laden with ration packs. 

Tyler’s eyes narrowed at the stack of food in Fin’s arms. 

“Relax, alpha,” Fin reassured him. “They’re dessert bars from the surplus cabinet. No meal rations were harmed in the collection of these sim snacks.”

He dumped the stack of sweets onto the low-lying table in front of the lounge, snatched one of the pillows off Auri’s pile that had been pilfered from empty rooms, and flopped back onto the bench. 

Scarlett rolled her eyes as she sat down beside him. He looked pleasantly surprised and a little smug. Tyler sat on Fin’s other side and Auri choked on a laugh at FIn’s expression. He looked like Christmas had come early. 

Kal surprised her by gracefully lowering himself to the floor to sit cross-legged. He wedged one of the pillows between his back and the hard surface of the bench behind him. Auri pressed the button on the control panel to start the sim before sitting on the floor next to Kal. He smiled warmly at her.

“Okay!” Finian exulted. “Let’s party like it’s the twenty-first century!” 

“You better not talk throughout this entire thing,” Scarlett warned. 

Fin placed a paperwhite hand against his chest and looked affronted. “Moi?” 

“Shhh!” Auri demanded. She realized though, that keeping them all quiet would be impossible when, during the very first scene, Finian chuckled as Galadriel narrated the ring’s origin. 

“That golden-haired pixie girl a cousin of yours, Kal?” 

_“One ring to rule them all,”_ Galadriel narrated. 

“Typical,” Tyler muttered. “One power-hungry whackadoo goes and ruins it for everyone.”

Finian cheered when Isildur cut the Ring from Sauron’s finger. 

“Oh, we’re just getting started,” Auri said gleefully. “Just you wait.”

_“And for two and a half thousand years, the ring passed out of all knowledge…”_

“Damn, you thought two hundred years was long, Auri,” Tyler said. “Imagine if it had been over two thousand years!”

“She would not have survived in the Fold that long,” Kal said darkly. 

As the prologue ended and Bilbo’s voice appeared, a pleasant soothing melody accompanied his narrative. Kal bristled as Auri shivered beside him. 

“Are you still cold?” He whispered, indicating the raised gooseflesh on her arm. 

She shook her head. 

“What is it, then?” 

Auri sniffled and impatiently wiped a tear off her cheek. “It’s just… ‘ConcerningHobbits.’”

“I don’t understand.”

“This movie was my favorite. Being able to watch it, in this completely new time, it… it feels like coming home.”

A look of understanding passed into his deep violet eyes. Auri imagined he could understand better than anyone how much it means to have a piece of home that had been lost. 

On the screen, a horse-drawn wagon rolled on a well-worn road. 

“Who’s that fellow?” Fin wondered aloud. 

“If you’d shut up and pay attention,” Scarlett teased, “you might find out.”

“That’s Gandalf,” Auri answered. She ought to let them figure it out on their own but she was just too excited. It felt like being reunited with friends she hadn’t seen in a lifetime. “And he’s the most badass character in the whole series.”

“He’s old,” Fin observed. 

“He’s a wizard,” Auri said as if that explained everything. 

_“No thank you!”_ Bilbo’s voice rang out angrily when Gandalf knocked on his door. _“We don’t want any more visitors, well-wishers or distant relations!”_

“And what about very old friends,” Auri recited alongside Gandalf. 

“Exactly how many times have you watched this?” Kal asked curiously. 

“More times than I can even remember,” Auri admitted proudly. “I read the books in high school too.” 

“There were books?” Kal’s interest was evident. 

“You… like to read?” Auri said, somewhat surprised. 

Kal stiffened. “Just because I am Warbreed does not mean I am reduced to an unintelligent brute,” his tone was defensive but Auri still heard the underlying hurt. 

“No,” she rushed to say, “that isn’t what I thought at all. You just didn’t strike me as the nerd type who likes fantasy novels.”

Kal seemed satisfied with her explanation and relaxed back against the pillow. 

In the film, Bilbo was giving his birthday speech and both Scarlett and Finian gasped aloud when Bilbo disappeared. Finian pointed to Gandalf’s suspicious face and said, “Oh, that wizard guy knows something’s up.”

When Gandalf confronted Bilbo about the ring and the hobbit called it “precious,” Tyler rubbed his chin in thought. “Why do they keep calling the Ring that? First that… well, I don’t know what it was but first the creepy thing in the mountain and now Bilbo.”

“The Ring is… almost sentient,” Auri explained. “It is manipulative and evil.”

Scarlett jumped when Gandalf grasped Frodo by the shoulder and demanded to know where the Ring was. 

“Twitchy, aren’t you?” Fin teased. 

“He scared me!”

“Poor Frodo,” Fin sympathized. “He inherits his uncle’s house just to get saddled with that evil ring.”

“Oh, fun fact about that,” Auri chimed in. “From the time Gandalf left after Bilbo’s party to when he comes back and confirms it’s the One Ring, seventeen years have passed.”

“What?!” Fin exclaimed. “Where the hells has he been all that time?”

“Looking for records and information to confirm whether it really was the Ring,” Auri said with a shrug. “Travel took time in Middle-Earth. They didn’t have ships or rocket-powered anything. They had horses.”

“When does Kal show up?” Finian snorted. 

“Legolas,” Auri said with a roll of her eyes. “He doesn’t show up until like… halfway through this movie.”

“Awww, c’mon!” Fin complained. 

As Gandalf and Saruman spoke of the Eye of Sauron, Fin’s own eyes widened. “They mean, like… metaphorically, right? There’s not a real eye of flame watching all of Middle-Earth, is there?”

“Well… not _all_ Middle-Earth,” Auri answered. “But all of Mordor, yeah.”

The scene shifted back to the hobbits. The black riders searched while Frodo and his cousins hid. 

“Oh, poor Merry and Pippin are going to get roped along for the journey, aren’t they?” Scarlett guessed. 

“Everyone will play an important role sooner or later,” Auri assured her. 

Scarlett whistled appreciatively when Strider made his entrance. “Hot damn, that man is fine.”

“He’s very… rugged,” Fin observed stiffly. 

“Jealous?” Scarlett teased with a sultry smile. 

_“Gentlemen. We do not stop until nightfall.”_ _  
_ _“What about breakfast?”_ _  
_ _“You’ve already had it.”_   
“We’ve had one, yes. But what about second breakfast?”

“Second breakfast?” Kal wondered.

“Hobbits love to eat,” Auri said, stifling a giggle. “There were _so_ many memes about that quote.”

“What’s a meme?” Tyler asked.

“It’s… a picture with, like... funny sayings or… oh, nevermind. Just watch the movie.”

“Sim,” Fin corrected. 

“Whatever.”

As the ringwraiths pursued the hobbits at Weathertop, Kal shook his head. “Those halflings have no training. Swinging their swords around wildly. They wouldn’t have lasted a day without this Strider character once the wraiths pursued them.”

On-screen, Strider burst in and fought the Nazgul, five to one. “See?” Kal continued. “He is a warrior.”

Auri couldn’t hide her smirk. Of _course,_ Kal would critique the combat aspect of the movie. But, she conceded, at least he was actively watching it. So far, he seemed captivated by the story. All of them did, in fact. 

While Strider was searching for the plant to help heal Frodo, Arwen appeared, as graceful as a queen. 

“Finally!” Tyler cried. “A girl!” 

Arwen and Strider debated about who would take Frodo to Rivendell. Finian leaned over and whispered to Scarlett, “Those two are an item. I bet you cleaning duty.”

“Shut up, Finian,” she said with a laugh. 

“I’m telling you,” he pressed. “Look at them. Look at their body language. Kind of ironic, huh?”

Scarlett raised an eyebrow at him. 

“One immortal, elfin and fair, in love with a dirt child.” He dipped his head at Kal and Auri on the floor. 

Scarlett elbowed him in the ribs and held up a finger to her mouth even as she let her attention drift from the sim to the two members of their squad sitting at their feet. Auri had gradually moved closer to Kal until she was leaning against his side. He was much taller than she was, otherwise her head would be on his shoulder. His arm was draped low around her waist, not applying any pressure, but resting gently just above her hip.

 _Precious,_ Fin mouthed. He leaned closer to Scarlett until his mouth was a whisper away from her ear. “I thought Syldrathi didn’t like anyone to touch them?”

“That doesn’t apply to their lifelove.”

As Arwen called to the river to protect her and Frodo from the wraiths, Kal leaned into Auri and whispered, “What language is she speaking?”

“Elvish.”

“Was this a real language?”

“Well… Tolkien—he’s the author who wrote the books—he made up the language for his books but, no. It wasn’t a language that was spoken by any actual civilization.”

“That is a shame,” Kal lamented. “It is beautiful.”

When Frodo woke in Rivendell and met Lord Elrond, Fin groaned. “Oh, yay, another pixie boy.”

Scarlett opened her mouth but before she could even retort, Auri turned around sharply. “That is Lord Elrond, you show some respect.”

Fin looked surprised but impressed, holding up his hands in a gesture of no ill-will. 

“Well, we’ve finally met some of the pointy-ears, so your Legolas better show up soon.”

Auri rolled her eyes. “He will…” She decided not to mention that _her_ Legolas was the Syldrathi warrior sitting beside her. She imagined that might embarrass him. 

Meanwhile, Sam and Frodo talked of missing the Shire and wanting to return home. Scarlett sounded sad when she said, “Something tells me they aren’t going home…” 

“Of course not,” Tyler added. “There are two and a half more sims in this story.”

Scarlett threw a pillow at him. 

In the sim, Elrond was telling Gandalf that the Ring could not remain in Rivendell. The scene shifted, and Auri began grinning widely, shhh’ing everyone and gleefully announcing, “Here he comes!”

“Oh,” Scarlett said appreciatively as Legolas finally appeared on screen. 

“On a white horse, no less,” Tyler chuckled. 

“You’d ride one if we had horses, goldenboy,” Fin quipped. 

They were all quiet for a moment, taking in the moment that this character Aurora had referenced so often finally made his appearance. The only sound was the score playing in the background of the film until...

“I look nothing like him!”

Tyler and Finian exploded into laughter. Scarlett gave Kal a sympathetic smile while Auri clutched her own side from laughing. 

“I didn’t _exactly_ say you looked like him,” she tried explaining through the group’s raucous laughter. “It’s just… on Earth —Terra, whatever—we were just one species. _No one_ had pointed ears or… violet eyes or…” 

She trailed off as those violet eyes bore into her own. If he had anything in common with Legolas, it was that Kal was almost too beautiful to look at. Beautiful might be the wrong word to describe a man but handsome just didn’t cut it. He was ethereal. And he was currently looking at her like he wanted her to be his undoing. 

Auri swallowed thickly and drew her bottom lip between her teeth. 

Scarlett cleared her throat loudly. “Who are those guys?”

With effort, Auri pulled her eyes back to the sim projector, even though Kal’s eyes remained fixed on her. 

“Oh, those are dwarves. They _hate_ the elves.”

“Why?”

“Long story. If you guys make it through all three of these movies, we can watch _The Hobbit_ … if Magellan can find them.”

_“This is no mere ranger! He is Aragorn, son of Arathorn. You owe him your allegiance.”_

“Oh, his voice is even hot,” Scarlett swooned. 

“Who cares about that?!” Tyler exclaimed. “Our man Strider is heir to the throne!”

“Hidden or reluctant royals,” Finian said dryly. “Good plot twist.”

_“It must be cast back into the fiery chasm from whence it came. One of you must do this.”_

“I love how he says ‘one of _you_ must do this,’” Finian drawled. “Like, okay, way to hand it off to someone else. Really appreciate you stepping up to volunteer, Elrand.”

“Elrond,” Auri corrected. “And it’s actually hilarious that you said that. On the original DVD commentary, the actor who played Merry said almost the same exact thing.”

As Elrond proclaimed them the Fellowship of the Ring and the screen faded to black, Tyler looked dubious. “Uhh, was that it?”

“Oh, far from it,” Auri explained. “This was the extended version. The movie was so long that when it was originally released, it had to be split into two parts because it wouldn’t all fit on one DVD.” 

“So… there’s a whole other half to just the first sim?” Scarlett clarified. 

“Yep!”

No one specifically mentioned watching the second half, but none of them seemed to be in a rush to get up either. Suddenly, Zila’s voice burst through Tyler’s uniglass. 

“There is a whole lot of nothing going on up here. By all means, continue.”

“But, your watch ends in an hour,” Tyler said. 

“I have nothing else to do. You nerds carry on.”

Tyler looked over to his sister, who shrugged. “She doesn’t seem to be bothered by it.”

“Okay then,” Tyler conceded. “Part two, Auri.”

Auri’s grin couldn’t have been wider. She may be living two hundred years outside her own time and lost everyone she had ever known… but it seemed that she had at least found a new group of friends she could nerd out with. 


	7. Chapter 7

_ BEGIN PART TWO, BOSS? _

“Hit it Magellan,” Auri said with a grin. She nestled in closer to Kal and was delighted when the arm around her waist tightened, pulling her closer.

This… thing they had, whatever it was, was still foreign and strange to her. But she couldn’t deny, even to herself, that she was attracted to him. It wasn’t like the Pull of the Syldrathi, but it was still a force beyond her control that pulled her to him. She wasn’t sure what their future held, but for now, it was a force she wasn’t going to try to fight.

The sim began, opening to a scene between Elrond and Aragorn. They were discussing Aragorn’s reluctance to take the throne of Gondor, despite being the last of his bloodline. Auri couldn’t be certain, but she thought she felt Kal stiffen a bit during that brief conversation on screen. She wished she had the ability to speak to him without words, like so many of the fated fantasy beings from the novels she read could. She missed her books.

When the scene changed to Bilbo giving Frodo his old sword Sting, Auri tensed.

“Are you alright?” Kal’s voice was as smooth as velvet and it never failed to make Auri feel like melted butter.

“Yes,” she said through clenched teeth, even as she angled her head away from the screen, into Kal’s chest.

Suddenly, Bilbo’s face contorted in rage when Frodo refused to allow him to touch the Ring. The reactions were exactly as Auri expected. 

“Holy shit!” Fin screamed while Scarlett jumped so violently, she sent the bowl of popcorn in her lap flying into the air. Kal’s grip on Auri’s waist was even tighter than before, the instinct to protect his be’shmai coming naturally. He loosened his hold once it became clear there was no real threat. Tyler was clutching his chest as he breathed shakily. “Uhh, how about warn us next time, eh Sleeping Beauty?”

Auri’s laughter made her whole body shake. “I’m sorry! It’s just… everyone I knew from back home always knew that part was coming, so we were always prepared. It’s been  _ so  _ long since I got to see anyone’s first reactions to it!”

As the Fellowship set out from Rivendell, Auri seemed to be more aware of the painful, wordless goodbye between Arwen and Aragorn. She wondered if maybe there  _ was  _ some mystical force that tied her fate to Kal’s… because suddenly, imagining them having to be parted made her chest tighten uncomfortably. 

During the scene where the Fellowship tries to work their way through a blizzard up the snowy mountain, Fin said, “Oh that’s cool.”

“What?” Auri wondered.

“The wizard and everyone else is struggling through snow that’s waist-deep. But the pixie boy is walking on top of the snow… as if he’s weightless.”

Auri brought her hand to her chin. “I have actually  _ never  _ noticed that before!”

Fin clicked his tongue. “C’mon, stowaway, you’re supposed to be the expert!”

_ “We will go through the mines.” _ _   
_ _ “So be it.” _

“Wait, why doesn’t Gandalf want to go through the mines?” Scarlett wondered.

“You’ll see…” Auri attempted to keep the emotion from her voice. She hoped to get through the movies without giving any spoilers.

As Gandalf attempted to get the doors of Moria opened, Fin leaned back in his seat, kicking his feet up onto a stool in front of him. “I bet it’s something so obvious, they don’t even think of it.”

“Well, I can bet you one thing,” Scarlett mused with a smirk. “If Zila had been part of that team, she would have had those doors opened in a heartbeat.”

_ “Bet your life on it, Red.”  _ Zila’s voice rang through the communicuff on Scarlett’s wrist. 

After the attack by the many-legged pond creature that trapped the Fellowship in the mines, Scarlett shivered. “Okay, I’m confused about something.”

“What’s up?” Auri prompted her to continue. 

“Gimli said that his cousins lived in the mines,” Scarlett pursed her lips, “and he boasted about how they would have good food and drink down in the mines. But when the Fellowship gets there, the bodies left behind from whatever battle happened are mummified. How would Gimli not know that everyone in Moria died, what looks like several years prior? I mean, wouldn’t they have gotten suspicious when they didn’t hear from anyone for a while?”

Auri sighed. “Probably not. Since written letters and messengers were the only means of communication in Middle-Earth, it wasn’t uncommon for them to go long periods of time without talking to folk in different parts of the world.”

“You talk about them as if they were real,” Kal murmured. “As if you knew them.”

Auri’s face and neck flushed. “Oh… well,” she tucked the white strand of hair behind her ear. “There were times when I didn’t have a lot of friends and my books were a way to escape reality. I developed pretty strong attachments to these fictional worlds and their characters.”

“I admire that kind of compassion,” Kal said, softly enough that only Auri heard him. She didn’t pull away when he weaved his fingers between hers, squeezing her hand gently. 

_ “I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.” _ _   
_ _ “So do all who see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” _

A hush fell over their group at Gandalf’s solemn words. For such an engaging audience, their silence seemed louder to Auri than their chatter. She didn’t need to ask why though. In a way, their squad was like the Fellowship… they were brought together by chance and even though they had a purpose, it wasn’t one that any of them asked for. Still, she hoped they all found comfort in Gandalf’s words like she did.

The silence didn’t last long, however. When Pippin knocked the bucket down the well, Scarlett and Fin audibly groaned. They all reacted with appropriately placed gasps and shrieks during the battle with the cave troll. 

As the goblins chased the Fellowship, hundreds more poured from holes in the floors and ceilings like a hoard of spiders.

“Ohhhhkay, well that’s going to give me nightmares for weeks,” Scarlett groaned.

“I wish that was the worst of their problems,” Auri said woefully. 

When the Fellowship reached the bridge of Khazad Dum, Tyler whistled while Fin grimaced. “That is not a bridge,” Fin said. “It’s a deathtrap.”

The roars of the Balrog grew louder. “I do  _ not  _ wanna know what this new monster looks like, do I?” Scarlett asked with a grimace.

“Seriously though,” Fin persisted, “would it have  _ killed  _ these dwarves to also carve out handrails on these death defying staircases and bridges?!”

“I was right,” Scarlett said when the Balrog first appeared on screen. “I did not want to know.”

The Balrog stepped onto the bridge, lashing its whip made of flame.  _ “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!” _

“Epic line, right there,” Fin nodded appreciatively. 

“No wait,” Tyler sat up straight, leaning toward the screen. “What is he doing!”

“Shit,” Auri muttered, slapping her forehead with the palm of her hand.

“Be’shmai?” Kal breathed. “What is the matter?”

Gandalf let go of the bridge, falling into the abyss. Auri squeezed her eyes shut, but it was no use. She had seen this film dozens of times—she could see the scene in her mind as clearly as if she was still watching. Only now, Gandalf’s sacrifice hit differently… because now, all she could see was Cat, covered in alien flowers that consumed her very soul.

Cat sacrificed herself for the rest of the squad. For Auri, so she could achieve whatever her purpose was here. It was a debt Auri feared she would never be able to repay.

“I’m sorry,” she said ruefully. “I wasn’t—I mean, I didn’t…” 

Scarlett leaned forward and placed a hand on Auri’s shoulder. “It wasn’t your fault.”

In the film, Haldir had intercepted the Fellowship in Lothlórien. When Gimli spoke the Elvish insult, Kal leaned closer to Auri and whispered, “What did he say?”

“I have no idea,” Auri admitted. “It’s never translated.”

“Boy, I wish I knew what dwarf-boy said to the blond pixie,” Fin chortled. 

“Hey!” Scarlett exclaimed when Galadriel appeared on screen. “We’ve seen her before! She was one of the three elves who got a ring, right?”

“Indeed she was,” Auri confirmed. 

“That pixie lady speaks some heavy pronouncements,” Fin said with a low whistle. “I would  _ not  _ want to get on her bad side.”

_ “Will you look into the mirror?”  _ Lady Galadriel asked as she poured water from a pewter pitcher into a basin. 

“Mirror?” Finian scoffed. “Bitch, that’s a bowl of water.”

“A bowl of water in a magical fantasy world,” Scarlett corrected.

“Damn,” Tyler breathed as the mirror showed scenes of death and destruction at the hands of Sauron. “No pressure, Frodo. Just the fate of the entire world relies on you.”

_ “This task was appointed to you. And if you do not find a way, no one will.” _ _   
_ _ “I know what I must do. It’s just… I’m afraid to do it.” _ _   
_ __ “Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.”

Auri’s shoulders sagged, as if heavy bags of sand had been set on them. She never truly understood some of the messages in this film before now. In her old life, it had just been fantasy entertainment. A story of the perils and trials of good triumphing over evil. Now, she realized just how alike she was with Frodo.

The fate of the entire universe seemed to rest on Auri’s shoulders. They didn’t know yet what her purpose was in the grand scheme of things… but they did know that she seemed paramount to ending whatever this threat was. The Ra’haam. For whatever reason, she was chosen as the one to bring balance to the universe. 

The scene in the sim changed to Saruman explaining the origin of orcs to his commander.

“Hold freaking everything,” Fin said with a grimace. “That ugly ass thing used to be a pixie?”

Auri nodded grimly. 

“Well, let’s hope the Syldrathi aren’t resurrected in a few hundred years to serve as some evil undead army,” Fin grumbled. 

They watched in awed silence as Galadriel bestowed her gifts upon the members of the Fellowship until Kal let out a soft whistle at the exquisite bow gifted to Legolas. His cheeks flushed pink when everyone glanced down at him. 

“The bows at Aurora Academy were all made of metal,” Kal explained. “Sleek and functional, but lacking artistic beauty. That one,” he pointed to the bow in Legolas’s hand, “is more like what we had on Syldra.”

Auri tensed. Kal didn’t often speak about his home world that had been destroyed.

“I didn’t know archery was among your skills, Kal,” Scarlett said appreciatively.

Kal shrugged. “It isn’t something that is needed in space. But on my planet, it was one of the primary methods of defense.”

In the film, Boromir was trying to persuade Frodo to give him the Ring, leading Frodo to put it on and become invisible.

“No!” Fin cried. “Don’t put it on, stupid! Big bad Sauron will see you!”

“It’s messing with their minds,” Scarlett said sadly. “Trying to isolate Frodo. Or make his friends turn against him.”

“He isn’t seriously thinking of going off alone, is he?” Tyler said woefully. “He’ll never make it by himself.”

Scarlett gasped when Boromir was struck with the first arrow. “Oh no!” 

The orcs took Merry and Pippin, running off with them in a full retreat. “Oh, I bet the zombie-pixies think those are the ones Saruman meant!” Fin exclaimed.

Frodo stood at the edge of the river, the Ring in his open palm. “Is he going to throw it in the river?” Scarlett asked with trepidation. 

“Of course he isn’t,” Fin chided. “There are two more sims left.”

“Shut up, Finian,” Scarlett retorted with a soft giggle just as Sam waded out into the river after Frodo.

_ “I made a promise, Mr. Frodo. A promise: Don’t you leave him Samwise Gamgee. And I don’t mean to. I don’t mean to.” _

In a way, their squad had made the same promises to each other. They had vowed to stick together to whatever end they may face.

“Wait,” Scarlett said when Legolas hurried to launch a boat in order to catch up to Frodo and Sam. “They’re not going to follow them? Is their Fellowship really splitting up?”

“They have to save Merry and Pippin!” Fin countered excitedly, nudging Scarlett’s shoulder. “I bet you anything. They’ll avenge Boromir’s death by rescuing the other two hobbits.”

“Anything?” Scarlett teased.

In the final scene, Frodo and Sam stood amid a rocky terrain, gazing at Mordor in the distance.

“Oh, wow, they’re already there?” Tyler commented. “I expected it to take longer. Aren’t there two more three-hour long sims?”

“Oh, they encounter quite a few… delays,” Auri replied vaguely.

“You’re going to make us watch to find out, aren’t you?” Fin griped with a feline grin. 

“Only if you want to…”

“Well, I’m hooked,” Scarlett replied. “But we really  _ should  _ relieve Zila from the watch.”

“Agreed,” Tyler replied. “We still have several days to go before we get to Knowhere. Perhaps tomorrow night we can resume the saga?”

“I’m definitely down,” Fin chimed in. “We can set the ship to autopilot and I can probably rig up some warning system so someone doesn’t have to be on watch in the cockpit the entire time.”

“Good,” Tyler replied. “Get to work on that. I’ll relieve Zila on watch in the meantime so she can get some sleep. I’d encourage the rest of you to get some shut-eye too. We never know what will happen.”

Auri stood, stretching from being curled up on the floor for so long. Kal rose with her. “May I walk with you to your cabin?” He asked politely. “I wanted to ask you about the books that sim was inspired by.”

“Of course,” Auri replied, nervously tucking the white strands of hair behind her ear. They were just the right length to keep slipping forward back into her face. 

She plucked Magellan off the mounting dock and tucked the uniglass back in her pocket before taking Kal’s outstretched hand. Glancing over her shoulder as they moved to the door, Auri saw Scarlett wink at her. She tried to ignore the flush that heated her neck and cheeks. 

Kal walked slowly through the ship, seeming to be in no hurry to reach the female cabins. After a few corridors of silent strolling, Auri said, “So, what did you want to ask me about the books?”

“Oh,” Kal replied, pulling at the back of his neck with his free hand. “Nothing, really. I just… used that as an excuse to walk with you.”

“You could have just asked to walk with me,” Auri said with a bashful smile. “I would have still said yes.”

“I do wish I could read the books, though,” Kal said. “The sim was entrancing and my experience has always been that books are far better than sims.”

“Did you read a lot on Syldra?”

“Yes. My parents had… differing opinions on how we were to be raised. After grueling training sessions, my mother would often bring me books from the Wayfinder libraries and I’d spend a few hours disappearing into other worlds.”

They rounded another corner and Auri’s door came into view. Earlier, Auri thought the ship was far too big and she would spend her time getting hopelessly lost. And now, she was silently cursing how quickly they had made it from the galley to the cabins, even walking as slowly as they had. 

“I’ll leave you to get some rest,” Kal said.

He brought her hand to his mouth, but the sleeves of his jacket that she still wore were too long, slipping past her wrists and covering most of her hands. He kissed her fingers softly before releasing her hand. 

“Or,” Auri said, not giving herself the chance to second-guess anything. “You could come in if you like? We haven’t had a lot of opportunities to talk, and there’s still so much I don’t know about you.”

Auri gave him the courtesy of pretending not to see the eagerness in his eyes as he replied, “I would like that.”

He followed her into her modest cabin and she had to laugh as he stood awkwardly in the center of the room while she flopped onto the bed with absolutely no grace or elegance. “Oh come on,” she said. “We just spent the better part of three hours on a pile of blankets. You can sit down if you want.”

Kal’s eyes flashed with panic… and longing. But he obliged her, perching on the edge of the bed. Silently, Auri cursed herself for being such a fool. She reminded herself that because of the Pull, Kal was already in love with her. And she nonchalantly invited him to sit on her bed... It was cruel of her to tease him like this, for even if she hadn’t intended to, she realized she was taunting what he wanted in front of him. Like dangling a carrot in front of a mule. 

She was just about to scramble off the bed and apologize profusely when he spoke. 

“There was a line in the sim that I’m curious if it came from the book or if it was written specifically for the sim?”

“What line?” 

“The one about deciding what to do with the time that is given to us.”

“That’s from the book,” Auri replied, glad to know the answer. She read the books several times during her mid-school years and that had been a quote that always stuck out to her. 

It carried more weight than ever now that her entire life was upside down. Auri could have remained trapped in that hypersleep for hundreds more years… and if she had, Tyler and the others would have been able to live peaceful, quiet lives. It was true the events in motion were not of their choosing, but as Gandalf had said, that wasn’t theirs to decide. The only thing they could do now was choose what to do with the path that was laid before them. 

Her path, it seemed, was entwined with the Syldrathi warrior beside her. Her very own space elf. For better or for worse, something in the universe decided that she was meant to find him. And she was never the one to look a gift destiny in the mouth. 

“Okay then,” she said. “Those books you read? Tell me your favorite one.”

Kal smiled widely at her before replying. “Well, there was one an exiled princess who became an assassin…”


	8. Chapter 8

Kal sat on a tiny bench beneath the solitary port window of Aurora’s cabin and gazed out at the stars. Aurora sighed softly in her sleep, causing Kal to shift his attention to her. Her short ebony hair was splayed out on the pillow while the section of white hair fell into her face, covering her right eye. She was so beautiful it almost hurt to look at her. 

She still had his Aurora Academy Tanks jacket on, though the red stripe across the shoulders and collar was now just a shade of gray. The Longbow had entered the Fold nearly an hour ago, which had been what caused Kal to wake so abruptly. 

When he woke, he immediately panicked at finding himself half-reclined on Aurora’s bed with Auri herself tucked against his side and his arm across her shoulders. He allowed himself thirty seconds to enjoy the prospect of her sleeping form curled against him, feeling safe and secure enough with him by her side to fall asleep. He could have stayed there for a millennium. Thirty seconds. He counted them down silently and then, as carefully as he could to avoid waking her, he eased his arm from around her and slid off the side of the bed.

He didn’t remember falling asleep. The last thing he could recall was Auri quizzing him on one of the books he’d been telling her about, only to discover they had both read it. Kal knew the book had been one from another time when he found it in the Wayfinders’ library on Syldra. Auri’s excitement over having read the book was infectious and she ended up recounting nearly the entire plot from memory.

Sitting on the bench, he watched her sleeping form. Asleep, she showed no signs of the trials and sorrows she had endured. His hands itched to reach forward and smooth the streak of white hair from her face. The desire was so strong, he wedged his hands beneath the cushion of the bench. He doubted she would take offense—Terrans didn’t have aversions to physical touch like his people did—but he also didn’t want to risk startling her awake. 

He still marveled at the fact that she was willing to try to reciprocate his feelings. To try to love him. She was not Syldrathi—she didn’t automatically have these feelings he had.

The Pull. Something Kal never expected to ever feel. The bond between two souls that made him irrevocably love her from the moment he laid his eyes on her. Those feelings were beyond his control and he had been so afraid, so devastated, when he realized she was human and therefore immune to the Pull. How could he expect her to reciprocate instant devotion?

Her words from Octavia echoed in his mind.  _ Did it ever occur to you that if you let me get to know you, I might like you back? _

It hadn’t. And Kal told her so on Octavia. But her behavior since leaving that overrun planet had begun to give him hope that she could one day care for him. 

He chuckled to himself as he recalled a moment before they fell asleep where she thanked him repeatedly for watching the sim with her. He kept telling her he legitimately enjoyed it, but she never seemed to believe him. 

Auri stirred. Her eyes fluttered open, causing Kal’s stomach to do backflips. She looked disoriented for a moment before seeming to realize they were in the Fold. Kal supposed it could be jarring to wake up to everything devoid of colors, especially for Auri who wasn’t used to the sensation. 

“Good… morning?” She said, her voice low and gravelly from sleep. It sent a shiver down Kal’s spine as he imagined hearing her say that a thousand mornings in a row… assuming they survived whatever challenges they were soon to face.

“You sound unsure,” Kal said, offering her a smile. “Not sure yet if it will be good?”

Auri offered him a tiny roll of her eyes. “No, wiseass. I meant… I have no idea if it’s morning or afternoon or the middle of the damn night.” She gestured to the little round window Kal sat beside. “That’s never any help to decipher what time it is.”

“Wiseass?” He smirked. 

“Yeah,” she sat up straighter and stretched her arms above her head. Kal had to remind himself to breathe normally. “It’s like a jackass, but add a little dose of smarty-pants.”

Kal decided not to mention he had no idea what a smarty-pants was either. Perhaps someday he would fully understand her vernacular.

“It is just after six o’clock in the evening,” Kal offered. 

“Jeeze, we slept the entire day?”

“It appears so.” 

Auri kicked the covers to the foot of her bed and twisted so that her feet rested on the floor. “Thank you,” she mumbled. “For staying in here even though… y’know you were awake.”

“Of course,” Kal murmured in reply. From her demeanor since they left Octavia, Kal suspected she feared being alone. She would need the time by herself eventually. To sort through her emotions and feelings about all that transpired on that planet. But for the time being, she seemed loath to be left alone… and Kal was not inclined to make her face those demons yet if she wasn’t ready. 

“Are you hungry?” He asked.

“Starved,” was her reply. 

He stood from the bench at the window and extended his hand. “Would you care to join me in the galley?”

Auri’s mouth curled up into a smile as she stood and took his hand. “I’d love to.”

As they made their way through the corridors of the Longbow, Kal said, “I hope we won’t be in the Fold for too much longer. I doubt the sim would be enjoyable without the vibrant colors.”

“You—you want to watch the next one?” Auri’s voice was tentative. Unsure.

He offered her a smile. “Of course. I’m intrigued to see where their stories lead them all.”

When they reached the galley, Scarlett, Zila, and Finian were each munching on ration bars. A steaming mug of caf sat in front of Scarlett, who glanced up as Kal and Auri entered. Her eyes lingered on their clasped hands before she seemed to catch Auri’s attention and waggled her eyebrows at her. 

Auri released Kal’s hand and moved to sit beside Scarlett. “Please tell me you have more where that came from,” she said, gesturing to Scarlett’s mug.

“Sleep well?” Scarlett asked as she nudged Auri’s hip before getting up to prepare another mug of caf for Auri.

“Right,” Finian drawled. “I’m sure sleeping was the last thing on pixieboy’s mind.”

He grunted as Zila elbowed him in his stomach.

“Fine, fine,” he grumbled. “But I have a very important question.”

Scarlett groaned obnoxiously. “What, Finian?”

“When are we going to watch the second sim, Auri?”

“Ooh, yes!” Scarlett nodded her agreement enthusiastically. “Can we? Please?”

Auri’s surprise was evident. “You… all want to watch it?”

“Uhh, duh!” Finian exclaimed. “You can’t get us hooked on the first one and then not expect us to want to watch the next one!”

“Umm, okay,” Auri said. “I guess once we’re out of the Fold—?”

“Your wish is my command, Sleeping Beauty,” Tyler’s voice rang out through the squad’s various uniglasses. 

The galley suddenly filled with color as the Longbow exited the Fold. No matter how many times Kal traveled through the Fold, it was always abrupt making the transition from color to grayscale and back again. 

Auri glanced at him, her eyebrows raised. He tried not to let his mind linger on the thought that already, she looked to him for confirmation and assurance. 

“Goldenboy,” Finian said into the uniglass speaker, “I rigged up an alert system for the autopilot, so you should be good to join us if ya want.”

“Be right there,” came Tyler’s reply.

“Will you be joining us this time, Zila?” Scarlett asked.

“Sure, I guess,” Zila replied. “I’ve seen this one but not the third.”

“I got the snacks,” Finian announced as he gathered non-ration pack food items and made his way to the rec room. Scarlett and Zila followed him, leaving Auri and Kal alone once again.

Auri gripped her steaming hot mug of caf. “I guess we’re all just going to be nocturnal now,” she said with a small laugh.

“It’s not as uncommon as you might think,” Kal replied. “Especially during space travel.”

“Well, then,” she switched the mug into her other hand so she could grip his. “Come on, Legolas.”

Kal accepted her hand but shook his head. “I thought we established I look nothing like him.”

Auri paused, letting go of his hand as she put hers on her hip and surveyed him. “Hmm, you’re right,” she mused. “You’re taller than Legolas… and  _ much  _ better looking.” She offered him a coquettish smile that reached all the way up to her beautiful mismatched eyes.

Kal stared at her, stunned into silence. He was barely able to register the compliment she paid him. His heart was hammering against his chest and a rushing sound filled his ears, making him feel as if he were under water. 

She giggled softly as she took his hand again, tugging him toward the rec room. 


	9. Chapter 9

_ READY, BOSS? _

Auri rolled her eyes as she replied. “Ready, Magellan.”

_ AAAAND WE’RE OFF. LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS. _

The squad had all assumed their same spots from earlier, with the addition of Zila, who sat in a chair a few feet away from the bench Tyler, Scarlett, and Finian were sprawled on. Kal and Auri took their places amid the pile of pillows and blankets on the floor. 

Being the extended edition of the film, it opened on a scene of Gandalf fighting the Balrog as he fell through the depths of the mountain.

“Wait!” Scarlett exclaimed. “So he didn’t die?”

“Ummmm,” Auri said. “Just… just watch.”

Sam and Frodo scaled down a rocky outcropping. A small box fell from Sam’s pocket and he called out to Frodo to catch it. When they reached the bottom of their climb, Frodo asked Sam what was inside the box.

“Marijuana,” Zila muttered. 

Auri jerked out of Kal’s arms, spinning to see their squad’s Brain. “Have you—”

“Watched the sim  _ and  _ the cast commentary?” Zila interjected. “Yes, I have.”

“Okay,  _ please  _ don’t shoot me again,” Auri beseeched, “because I really want to be your friend now.”

Scarlett and Finian burst into laughter. 

“Can I ask a stupid question?” Tyler posed.

“Shoot,” Auri said, then flinched. “Tyler, I mean,” she added. “Not Zila.”

More chuckles from Finian. 

“If all they have to eat is that Elvish bread,” Tyler wondered. “Why is Sam still carrying a pack full of pots and pans?”

“I dunno,” Scarlett said with a mouthful of popcorn. “In case they happen upon a Mordor farmer’s market and want to cook a nice supper?”

While Frodo and Sam slept, Gollum scaled down the side of a cliff toward them.

“Holy gremlin!” Finian cried out. “What is that thing!”

“That’s Gollum,” Auri supplied. “The creature Bilbo stole the ring from.”

“It’s savage!” 

“The Ring corrupted him,” Auri explained.

“Why does he keep calling himself ‘us’?” Scarlett asked. “Does he have like… a split personality?”

“Err, sort of,” Auri answered. “He is both Gollum and Smeagol. His story is explained further into the movie.”

“In other words,” Finian crooned, “Shut up and watch, Scarlett.”

The Jones twin elbowed Fin in the stomach, though Auri doubted he minded one bit, considering Scarlett then tucked her feet underneath her and leaned against Fin’s side, resting her head on his shoulder.

The scene switched to a legion of orcs running across the hillside, two with hobbits bound to their backs.

“Ohhhh! Pippin!” Scarlett exclaimed before clapping a hand over her mouth. 

“Really, sis,” Tyler chided. “All the eye candy in this sim and you’re sweet on the three-foot tall fella with a mop of curly hair?”

Scarlett flushed her namesake. “He’s just adorable, okay?”

“I can be adorable,” Fin muttered. 

Aragorn discovered the leaf clasp that Pippin snatched off his cloak and threw to the ground, so as to let their friends know they were on the right track.

_ “Not idly do the leaves of Lórien fall.” _

“Not idly do the leaves of Lórien cut a bitch,” Auri mumbled. 

“I beg your pardon?” Kal replied, one silver eyebrow arched in confusion.

Auri snorted. “Someone at my school got caught with a little switchblade knife once,” Auri explained. “It was shaped like a green leaf and the knife part folded into the leaf and my friend said ‘not idly do the leaves of Lórien cut a bitch’ as a joke and I’ve never been able to think of anything else every time I see this part.”

“I think I love hearing about your connections and memories of this sim more than the sim itself,” Scarlett commented.

_ “Legolas! What do your elf-eyes see?” _

“De way,” Auri muttered again.

“Okay, what’s the story with this one?” Tyler chuckled. 

Auri flushed slightly. “I’m sorry. I need to shut up and let you guys watch.”

“No,” Kal said gently. “This story means a lot to you. Scarlett is right—seeing you come to life with memories from various quotes or moments is more special than watching the sim itself.”

“Okay, but I didn’t say it quite like that,” Scarlett muttered. 

“So, there was this other movie from my time,” Auri explained. “A cartoon called  _ The Lion King _ . There’s a baboon in the movie called Rafiki and he tells Simba ‘you follow old Rafiki, he knows de way.’ And later, they get into a battle with some hyenas and Rafiki punches one from behind, just like Legolas does later in this movie. And someone made a meme of the two moments, blending them together.”

“Stowaway,” Fin said, “a lot of things from your time seem dull compared to now, but the sims are not one of those things.”

Auri shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a humongous nerd.”

On screen, Éowyn and Éomer stood before King Théoden to tell him of his son’s wounds from battle.

“Whoah,” Fin said, crunching on a hard candy. “What happened to  _ that  _ guy? He looks like he’s a thousand years old.”

“That slimy greaseball with the black hair has something to do with it,” Tyler guessed. “I bet you toilet cleaning duty.”

The scene moved back to Merry and Pippin, struggling to steer clear of a raging battle between the orcs and the riders of Rohan. 

“They’re going to get trampled!” Scarlett wailed.

“Worried for your precious pipsqueak?” Fin chortled.

“His name is Pippin!”

As the Riders surround Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas, Tyler commented, “I like how in the first one, the dwarf and the elf despised each other. Now when one of those riders threatens Gimli, Legolas immediately draws his bow to defend him.”

“Oh, their character development is some of my favorite,” Auri said. “They become a source of comedic relief too.”

“How?” Fin wondered. 

“You’ll see,” Auri snickered. 

Aragorn and the others searched the wreckage of the orcs battle with the Riders of Rohan. Aragorn kicked a helmet, screaming in rage. Auri clamped her hand over her mouth. 

“What’s the matter?” Kal asked.

Auri shook her head, hand still held tightly over her mouth. Kal gently reached out, pulling her hand away from her face.

“Just more useless trivia,” Auri supplied. 

“Tell us!” Scarlett insisted.

“When they were filming the sim, the actor who played Aragorn broke his toe when he kicked that helmet, so that scream he let out was real.”

“Oh, the poor guy!”

“It made for a convincing take, though,” Tyler commented. 

In the Dead Marshes, Frodo and Sam stopped to rest and eat while Gollum wailed about having nothing to eat.

“He’s a bit dramatic, isn’t he?” Fin observed.

“A distant cousin of yours, is he?” Tyler teased.

“Real cute, goldenboy.” 

_ “Don’t follow the lights.” _ Gollum warned. A moment later, Frodo fell face-first into the water where the spirits of long-dead warriors tried to pull him down.

“Frodo, you stupid idiot!” Fin yelled. “Gollum just told you not to do that!”

“It’s the Ring,” Scarlett said. “It’s like it will do anything to keep Frodo from taking it to Mordor.”

“But why?” Tyler’s brows furrowed. “That’s where its true master is, so wouldn’t it want to go there?”

“It wants to break free and find its own way back,” Zila said. “It doesn’t like being in the clutches of anyone.”

The ringwraiths suddenly surged toward them, riding great winged beasts. 

“Wait a second!” Scarlett exclaimed. “I thought they were dead!”

“No,” Auri replied mournfully. “They can’t die… yet.”

Back in the Fangorn Forest, Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn continued their search for Merry and Pippin. The White Wizard confronted them, revealing himself as—

“Gandalf!!” Tyler cried. 

_ “I’ve been sent back… until my task is done.” _

“Wait, I don’t like the sound of that,” Scarlett fretted. “That makes it sound like once they accomplish their goal of destroying the Ring, Gandalf will what? Die?”

“Life and death aren’t so cut and dry in this world,” Auri tried explaining.

“Clearly,” Fin mumbled, pointing to the resurrected wizard on the screen. 

The group was silent for a while, watching the film without commentary. Until the scene cut back to Sam and Frodo outside the Black Gate of Mordor. Sam slipped off a rock, tumbling down the rocky hillside. Two guards from the legion marching into the gate broke off to investigate. Sam was stuck, buried halfway up his chest in rubble.

“Oh, they’re going to catch him!” Fin covered his solid black eyes with paperwhite hands, peeking through his fingers.

Frodo hurried down after Sam and swept the Elvish cloak over them both. Sure enough, Galadriel’s word rang true as they hid the hobbits from unfriendly eyes. To the approaching guards, they looked like nothing more than another rock on the barren landscape. 

“Phew!” Scarlett sighed. “Good thing that Elf queen gave them those cloaks.”

Gollum stopped the hobbits from dashing through the open gate, telling them there was another way in. Sam raged at the creature, demanding to know why Gollum hadn’t told them of the alternate entrance to begin with.

_ “Because Master did not ask!” _

“Cheeky little bugger, isn’t he?” Tyler chuckled.

Later, Treebeard was explaining to Merry and Pippin why the Ent population was declining, due to the loss of the Entwives.

“If they’re not dead, why can’t the Ents find them?” Tyler scratched his chin.

“The magic of the forest had died for so long, the Entwives lost their sentience and became little more than normal trees. They could no longer move or speak, so the Ents were left alone,” Auri explained. 

“That’s so depressing,” Scarlett said mournfully. 

When Gandalf and the others arrived at Edoras and were ordered to disarm themselves, Gandalf convinced the guards to let him keep his staff, claiming it to be a walking stick.

“Look at that sly old wizard,” Fin said with a smirk. “Gripping Legolas’s arm like he’s some feeble, weak fellow. I see you, Gandalf.”

Scarlett and Finian cheered when Gandalf freed the king from Saruman’s influence. 

To avoid war with Saruman,  Théoden ordered his people to Helm’s Deep. Gandalf stormed off, telling Aragorn to look for him at dawn on the fifth day.

“Wait, he’s leaving?” Scarlett bemoaned. 

“He has his reasons,” Auri assured her.

Later, Gollum argued with himself while Sam and Frodo slept.

“Okay, that’s cool,” Fin said. 

“What?” Scarlett adjusted in her seat, leaning closer against Finian, who did not seem to mind one bit.

“They flipped the camera angle depending on whether Gollum or Smeagol is the one talking. So it really looks like two different characters instead of the two personalities within the same creature.”

Smeagol banished Gollum, so deep within his own mind that the sinister personality seemed quieted for good. The following morning, he happily bound over to Frodo and Sam with a dead rabbit between his teeth.

“Oh, oh oh,” Auri said excitedly, grabbing Kal’s arm and shaking it. He glanced over at her with a warm, slightly bemused smile. Seeing her come alive while watching these sims warmed his heart. He knew there was still a long road ahead of them for her to become fully comfortable in this time, but he was grateful these sims existed as a way to bridge her old life with her new one.

“What is it?” He asked, slipping his arm around her shoulder once she released it.

“This part!” She squealed. “It’s just so funny because Tolkien wrote some amazingly beautiful prose, but a lot of the most famous quotes from these movies were written just for the movie. But this one coming up, it’s so funny and it’s one of the ones that was  _ actually  _ in the books.”

_ “What’s taters, precious?” _ _  
_ _ “Po-ta-toes!” _

Auri threw her head back and cackled. 


End file.
